A/HRC/30/42 79. The contribution of civil society organizations to transitional processes has been analysed is various ways, including regarding their advocacy function, their crucial role in collecting and preserving evidence, their monitoring functions and their reconciliation initiatives. All of these are crucial. H owever, in the present report, the Special Rapporteur concentrates on a more prevention-specific argument. He presents a series of initiatives that may enhance the preventive potential of civil society, ordered by degree of ambitiousness and complexity, showing how this potential, in many ways, is a manifestation of a “power of aggregation” that counteracts the “disarticulating power” of terror and that works by lowering the costs of raising claims. A. Ceasing attacks and threats and removing obstacles 80. One of the simplest ways of enabling civil society to contribute to preventive work is simply to refrain from persecuting, intimidating and harassing civil society representatives, including human rights defenders. 48 81. Another step is to remove many of the legal and practical barriers that have been placed on civil society with increased frequency in the recent past. According to one report, “between 2004 and 2010, more than 50 countries considered or enacted measures restricting civil society. Since 2012, more than 90 laws constraining the freedoms of association or assembly have been proposed or enacted.” 49 These laws introduce obstacles of various types, such as barriers to operational activity, free speech and advocacy, contact and communication, peace ful assembly and access to funding. 82. Such strong governmental interest in hampering the work of civil society confirms yet again the importance of the latter. This consolation, however, does not make up for the different kinds of risks and privations that these obstacles generate, including violations of the right to physical integrity and the weakening of monitoring and advocacy capacities to prevent violations. B. Legal empowerment 83. A more proactive way of strengthening civil society is to estab lish programmes targeted at the community level, focusing on those who have traditionally been excluded from the protection of the law, particularly women, with the specific aim of facilitating the use of the law, the legal system and legal services to advance their own rights, promote government accountability and resolve local disputes. 84. Legal empowerment can contribute to restoring the sense of agency of control over one’s life that mass violations erode. These initiatives have also acted as a catalyst for social organizations and led to the enhanced ability, confidence and willingness of individuals and communities to participate in sociopolitical processes, including transitional justice mechanisms. This empowerment typically also brings with it a more assertive attitude of civil society actors to prevent violations in the future by enforcing their rights more confidently. 48 49 See A/HRC/25/55. See Douglas Rutzen, “Aid barriers and the rise of philanthropic protectionism”, International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law. vol. 17, no. 1, p. 7 (March 2015). 19